Literacy news
Successfully engaging priority groups in learning
15 Apr 2011
A new research report examines how adults identified as priority groups in the Skills for Life strategy are engaging in learning with regards to their language and literacy skills.
Engaging homeless people, Black minority ethnic and other priority groups in Skills for Life finds that improving the literacy of adults with the poorest skills has a positive impact on their children’s performance as well as being associated with improvements in their own social and economic situation.
The report, published by the National Research and Development Centre for adult literacy and numeracy, also identifies what constitutes the most successful training and approaches to supporting disadvantaged families and hard-to-reach individuals:
- “Community-based provision is more likely to engage hard to reach groups who can feel marginalised by traditional college environments.
- Courses which personalise provision and contextualise content to individual learners’ lives are more successful with all priority groups.
- Provision which is responsive to the location, timing and support needs of different priority learners is likely to be more effective.
- Flexible courses which allow learners to drop in and out as they deal with challenges in their personal lives are more likely to retain them in the long run.
- Peer support and key mentors or supportive workers in the community have an important role in sustaining motivation and helping people make the transition to more formal learning.”
The report makes a number of recommendations to policy makers and those developing strategies to support priority groups, including:
- “Develop and fund positive action schemes to train people from priority groups to act as mentors and tutors.
- Prioritise family learning as it not only helps the most disadvantaged adults deal with other problems in their lives but also has a positive intergenerational impact on the literacy of their children.
- Invest in strategies for sharing good practice and training on contextualising basic skills as well as embedding literacy and language in vocational courses.
- Invest in coordinating support for learners: education, health, social services and third sector agencies, so that policies and priorities do not conflict.
- Investigate good practice in addressing literacy and language for the new priority groups identified in the comprehensive spending review targets, such as care leavers, adult offenders under probation supervision, adults with moderate severe or severe learning difficulties and with mental health needs in communities.”
The findings within this research support the National Literacy Trust’s approach to working with communities and local areas to build a strategic and embedded commitment to literacy across local authority services and other local agencies. Our work also focuses on families and helps local areas to target support to those with the greatest need, improving literacy levels and life chances.
Find out more about how we can work with you to develop such an approach, and access local best practice examples. Our conference, Breaking the cycle: aspirations, literacy and the home, will provide local examples of this approach in practice. Conference programme and booking
Read the full research paper on the NRDC website.
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